When everyone was walking towards the main hall, Lu Liangchen and Lu Qingxuan fell behind. Lu Qingxuan asked in a low voice:
"What do you think?"
Lu Liangchen stared at Chen Ya's back and whispered, "Hiss, I can't tell. This guy doesn't look like the junior high school dropout Lu Shaohai said he was."
Lu Qingxuan rolled her eyes and said:
"Who asked him? That person is not important. I'm asking why Grandma suddenly wanted to eat at Fushoutang today."
Lu Liangchen was a little surprised: "Weren't you talking to him happily just now?"
"Can you see with your eye that I'm happy?" Lu Qingxuan said unhappily.
Lu Liangchen knew that Lu Qingxuan didn't like joking, so he quickly stopped and said without teasing her:
"Seriously, did you see anyone else coming today?"
"Who? Are you talking about Li Siqing?" Lu Qingxuan asked.
"Yeah," Lu Liangchen nodded, "Maybe he wants Lu Nina to show off in front of us and consolidate her position."
Lu Qingxuan frowned slightly: "It's possible."
After she finished speaking, she smiled bitterly again: "Grandma is partial, everyone knows it, so why bother with this? It's like she thinks we are too materialistic and utilitarian. No one wants to compete with Lu Nina for anything."
"yes."
What Lu Liangchen said was a bit ambiguous.
He didn't say that he didn't want to compete with Lu Nina.
In this family, perhaps only someone like Lu Qingxuan, who thinks highly of himself, could say this with such confidence.
Lu Nina has occupied the few resources the family has now by herself. Who wouldn't have some ulterior motives?
After entering the main hall, the two of them quickly stopped talking in private and unconsciously moved a few feet away from each other, with business-like smiles on their faces.
Mrs. Yu smiled and said, "Sit down, children, sit wherever you like."
Although they said everyone could sit anywhere, no one dared to sit above Lu Nina. After she sat down, the others took their seats one by one.
Naturally, Chen Ya sat at the last seat.
"Good, good, good." Old Mrs. Yu smiled kindly and said three good words repeatedly to the younger generations sitting there.
The Second Master moved beside her, looking unhappy.
The clock behind them showed that it was already ten past twelve. Usually at this time, he would have finished his meal and was outside in the yard basking in the sun.
"Our table is for twelve people, but there are eleven of us sitting here now, leaving only one empty seat. That's great! It's really great that so many people from my Lu family are having dinner together."
Lu Nina said from below: "Grandma, what's there to be happy about? During our New Year's dinner, two or three tables were always full."
Mrs. Yu asked, "Have you read Dream of the Red Chamber?"
Lu Nina said: "I have watched the TV series..."
"Then you haven't read the original novel?"
"I don't have time to watch that."
Lu Qingxuan said, "I've seen it."
Old Madam Yu looked at Lu Qingxuan and said:
"Do you remember that scene in 'Dream of the Red Chamber' when everyone in the Jia family gathered together to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Grand View Garden?"
Lu Qingxuan's mind moved, and she nodded hesitantly, "I remember...
"I didn't understand it before, but now I do," said Old Lady Yu, with a strange expression on her face. "When Lady Jia came to the table and lamented the small number of people, I feel the same way now."
Lu Qingxuan was suddenly confused.
The chapter that Old Lady Yu mentioned is the 75th chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, where it is described as "A strange omen at a night banquet emanates from a sad sound, while appreciating new Mid-Autumn Festival poems yields a good prophecy." This is the only time Cao Xueqin wrote about the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Jia Mansion.
However, although the Mid-Autumn Festival seemed lively and exciting on the surface, there were signs everywhere that this family was about to decline.
It is exactly the same as the current Lu family.
Lu Qingxuan couldn't understand why her great-grandmother suddenly said this.
This is so unlucky.
She has always been fearless and unwilling to hide any doubts in her heart. She has always felt that if there are any unlucky signs, it will not be considered unlucky if they are pointed out to others in person.
Then Lu Qingxuan said, "Grandma, I have something to say. I'm afraid it might not be pleasant to hear, but I don't know if I should say it or not."
Old Madam Yu smiled and said, "Then go ahead and tell me. If you really don't like it, I'll just treat it as the words of a child."
Sitting next to him, an uncle from the Lu family said with a smile, "Grandma, Qingxuan is already in her twenties. She's not a child anymore."
She said, "In my eyes, you are all children. Qingxuan, you speak."
Lu Qingxuan said, "Grandma, I'm reading the Red Mansions with comments by Zhi Yanzhai. I've also read the passage you mentioned. Zhi Yanzhai's annotation there reads, 'Before drinking, one feels the impact of the people, which is always a sign of dispersal.' Isn't what you said a bit auspicious?"
The words "The people are affected before they even drink, which is a sign of impending separation" frightened several uncles and aunts so much that their faces changed. Even Lu Liangchen looked at her in surprise and suspicion.
"Children's words are without restraint, children's words are without restraint!" said the uncle. "Qingxuan, drink a cup as punishment, and it won't count as your wrongdoing."
Old Mrs. Yu stretched out her hand to block the uncle's next words.
"Qingxuan is right, it's unlucky, but I was just about to say it, it's unlucky," said Old Lady Yu with a serious expression, "something that happened not long ago reminded me of this episode in A Dream of Red Mansions. My Lu family is so much like the Ningguo Mansion and the Rongguo Mansion!
"Do you know what happened this morning?"
After she finished speaking, her eyes turned cold, and she glanced at the people at the table and said:
"While I was drinking tea this morning, I suddenly realized that the tea in my Liu'an Guapian had been changed from Ti Pian to Mei Pian. I asked the housekeeper Cheng about it, and he said that the farm had to save money, so they had to make some compromises on this tea."
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